Vitalik Buterin Calls “Bitcoin Creator” Craig Wright A 'Fraud’

Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin called self-proclaimed bitcoin creator Craig Wright a fraud during a conference in South Korea

While Wright's response during the conference is unclear, on Twitter he implied BCH will render ETH useless

At the Deconomy 2018 conference in Seoul, South Korea, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin called out Craig Wright, who claims to be bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, for allegedly being a “fraud,” and questioned why he was allowed to speak at the conference.

A video of the event has been circulating social media, and has already garnered over 25,000 views at press time. Most of what Buterin says during the 19-second long clip is unintelligible, but at the end it’s clear he questions why Wright is allowed to speak at the conference, after calling him a “fraud.”

Buterin’s words came during Wright’s presentation at the conference. How the self-proclaimed bitcoin creator reacted is unclear, as the crowd quickly started cheering the Ethereum founder’s words.

On Twitter, most users who agree Craig Wright isn’t who claims to be cheered Vitalik’s move. Wright himself reacted to the situation on Twitter, by implying Bitocin Cash (BCH) – the cryptocurrency he supports as the ‘real bitcoin’ - will render Ethereum useless.

Vitalik has one issue...

When we demonstrate what BCH can do, he knows that ETH will wither and die.

Vitalik Buterin had in the past claimed he doesn’t believe Craight Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto, as he could’ve easily proven his identity by making a signature from the very first bitcoin block and putting it out in public. Instead, Vitalik argues, he made a complex blog post, and showed said signature to a few people.

Buterin argues that signaling theory shows those who don’t go with the simply way of doing things and instead take the hard path, like Wright did, probably couldn’t go with the simply way to begin with.

Controversy Surrounding Craig Wright

In early 2016, after various media outlets published articles pointing to Craig Wright being Satoshi Nakamoto, the chief scientist at nChain posted a blog post claiming it was him. That same day, journalists from the BBC and The Economist claimed to have seen Wright sign a message with a private key associated with the very first bitcoin transaction.

“Some people will believe, some people won't, and to tell you the truth, I don't really care.”

Craig Wright

After analyzing Wright’s blog post supposedly containing proof he was Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoin developer Peter Todd clarified there was no proof there. Bitcoin Core later on released a tweet informing the community:

There is currently no publicly available cryptographic proof that anyone in particular is Bitcoin's creator.